After a Swedish court ruled on Monday to keep in custody four alleged Daesh/ISIS members suspected of serious weapons offences and other charges, an expert said the Scandinavian country had become a “safe haven” for terrorism.
The detention hearing was held at the Nakka District Court near the capital Stockholm. The two defendants, brothers, were in custody on suspicion of preparing to commit terrorist offences. Judge Olof Roos told the daily Dagens Nyheter:
All are denying crimes.
Four defendants were arrested last week in a covert operation by a national task force in the municipality of Tyreso, south of Stockholm. The operation took place in several locations on Thursday and Friday. Magnus Ranstorp, a political scientist and terrorism researcher, told local media on Sunday:
We have had heavy-handed leaders who used Sweden as a safe haven.
The four suspects allegedly belonged to a group formed by defectors from the Somalia-based terrorist group al-Shabaab, led by Abdul Qadir Mumin, a former resident of the southwestern coastal city of Gothenburg.
According to Ranstorp, Mumin lived in Sweden for several years where he was radicalised before moving to the UK and gaining British citizenship.
The organisation was founded in 2015 when Mumin and about 20 of his followers left al-Shabaab and swore allegiance to Daesh/ISIS. The Government of Sweden applies the name Daesh instead of ISIS to the terrorist organisation.
